Goodies

It's hard to find a transition from my last post, so I'm not trying, but Blogger is in a picture mood, so beware, bandwidth sucker ahead.

First of all, my Secret Pal struck again.

She sent me a skein of the softest chocolate brown alpaca from UK Alpaca (amazing, they take online orders), two skeins of Melody "Jive" and lovely bag handles. Also, a pretty carved bangle, a white chocolate treat and a card that made me snort with laughter (but which I couldn't manage to get in a picture). And this:

Now, in a dessert, the combination of chocolate, coffee and lime would be ghastly (not to mention the hemp oil), but in shower gel, they are amazing. I'm trying to make it last a bit, but the name cracks me up every morning. Thanks pal!

Speaking of thanks pal ...

My One Skein Pal is really taking the one skein thing to its limits, sending me this gorgeous Finnish wool in a 100 g skein. The green is a little lighter in person, but my kitchen wasn't when I took the picture. It's great stuff - no frills, but soft and sturdy, if you know what I mean.

I make beaded jewellery, which means that I also produce stitch markers for everyone I know (whether they knit or knot), but my own knitting gets marked with scrap yarn. My pal seemed to know this, because she sent me two beautiful green ones. For the Germans visiting this blog, the card says "Na, du alte Socke". Hee.

But wait, the goodie stampede doesn't stop here. Meet the new love of my life.

I sort of knew that there would be a gift of Denise Interchangeables in my future, so I read all reviews I could find. The raves are right, these needles are great, easy to use and just a pleasure all around. At first I thought it would be weird knitting with plastic. I have one pair of plastic straights (8 mm), and I hate them. I'm an INOX girl with a secret passion for bamboo. I was surprised how nice it was to knit with the Denises. I actually like the fact that the smaller sizes are a little flexible, which I thought would annoy me. And the cord extensions are pure genius.

The Denises were accompanied by this ...

Handmaiden Sea Silk in Ivory. What can I say, there is really nothing like it. There were two skeins of it, but the astute observer will have noted that there is also a pair of needle tips and a cord missing from the Denise set. I'm already playing.

My delight about these things in the middle of plenty of sad stuff going on in my life feels shallow to me sometimes. Even the softest alpaca or greenest green or even Sea Silk won't make anything better or help anyone. But then I keep thinking about the story told by the Yarnharlot in her latest book, the one about sending the makings of kilthose to a non-knitting male friend in a crisis. Yarn and sticks or hooks do possess healing qualities, and even the material joys inherent in them are connected to a passion that has nothing to do with expensive yarn.
Not counting loved ones, fiber art is one of the two great passions in my life, and sitting down to knit or crochet, the act of making something with my hands and soft fiber creates little pockets of happy when I need them most.

You didn't think that was it with the pictures, did you?

Here's a progress report on the red Garnstudio cardigan.

Stylish lighting by IKEA :o).

I really like the Lang Twin, even though it splits (cotton just does, I guess) and the balls unravel annoyingly. But it creates a nice fabric. I knit the two fronts at the same time, now following with the sleeves. The 2 on 2 socks taught me that I mind untangling yarn much less than knitting two of the same thing - especially if it's mostly rib and stockinette. After the sleeves, I'll have to pick up stitches all around the bottom and front of the cardigan to knit the edging. Did I mention that I love the Denise cord extensions?